by With today's Nintendo's Direct closing out a flurry of major games showcases over the past week, I think it's fair to say that the best wasn't saved for last. Don't get me wrong, I think this Direct was a fine presentation overall, but for a major summer showcase for Nintendo with high expectations, it was lacking.
First party announcements were mostly limited to smaller updates on previously announced titles (like Splatoon Raiders and Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave), a selection of Xenoblade Chronicles Switch 2 versions, and a very brief tease of the Ocarina of Time remake that has been rumoured for several months. I expected to see more from Ocarina of Time in particular, given that it's planned for release this year and is already a bit of a known quantity as a remake of a popular game.
Xenoblade Genesis is probably the most substantial showing in the Nintendo first party lineup, but I didn't see anything particularly eye-catching there. Nintendo is delivering more casual fare with Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, but it's hard to see much there to appeal to those outside the existing sphere of motion control minigame fans.
The third party announcements were decent, though many were previously rumoured and surprises were relatively few and far between. Performance concerns plague a number of these games however, with low or unlocked frame-rates marring the likes of Metaphor: Refantazio, Final Fantasy 14, Dragon's Dogma 2 and Space Marine 2. There's probably some sense in declining to port certain current-gen CPU hogs, and in capping unstable games to a 30fps or 40fps refresh. Unfortunately, it seems we are bound to endure quite a few major games with poor performance hygiene on Switch 2.
What did you make of the Nintendo Direct announcements? And how do you rank the show against the Xbox, PlayStation and Geoffcon shows? Let us know in the comments below.
Comments 5
Nintendo seems to like to stack direct with one genre, as a jrpg fan it was great. It didn't necessarily feel like an E3 tier direct so maybe that's the disappointment, without that expectation it would be seen more favorably.
Seeing KH4 featured here and not PlayStation was crazy though. I'm disappointed KH is a key card but i had no hope that KH4 would be on Switch 2, especially not day 1. And Ocarina of Time would hit a lot harder if not for leaks, i don't think you can fault Nintendo for but surprising you from a leak. The idea of being disappointed there was no gameplay for a game coming so soon only makes sense if it wasn't also the announcement. Otherwise an announcement of a game coming in a few months is generally seen as a good thing.
I thought the Direct was pretty mediocre, but only because it was hyped up so much beforehand. I thought a good 40mins of it would probably have been better off in one of their Partner/Third Party Directs but then again, there will be people who only own a Switch 2 who were probably very excited by the glut of ports that were announced. As someone who pretty much owns a Switch 2 exclusively for Nintendo games, the announcement of another Xenoblade game, Wii Sports Redux and an extremely short glimpse at Ocarina of Time was a bit disappointing. Couple of interesting third party announcements though, like Muramasa.
Overall, not really for me and that's fine.
I liked the Nintendo direct more than any other. I could say that the XBOX Showcase was second, but I have no faith in a consumer brand by Microsoft. The new management seems to doing all the right calls, but I think it's probably too late and they will eventually be screwed by the parent company.
I felt like I was waiting for the Nintendo Direct to actually kick off... and it never did.
It started with a whimper, and crawled through a bunch of JRPGs and games that already exist, but are coming to the Switch 2, ending with Ocarina of Time, which was barely anything other than it exists and has an art style and is coming out this year.
I expect they're playing their cards close to their chest, and they are going to have a dedicated Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct sometime before September, that will include the OOT release date and gameplay along with some kind of commemorative trinket and/or amiibo, and maybe Twilight Princess on NSO.
This year is pretty packed with good games, though. My PS5 is going to be cooking. I'm not sure when I'll get around to them all, honestly. So I'm okay if Star Fox and OOT are the only things from Nintendo I'm playing.
Being a huge Nintendo fan from the snes days to now it’s a shame to say compared to the other platform holders summer shows nintendos was glaringly lacking in my opinion. A focus on small niche games and old ports opening with an obscure rhythm action game. Very few exclusives of note or Nintendo made games. Besides a couple of big Japanese RPGs there wasn’t much to tempt a non switch 2 owner. No new 3d Mario, Luigi’s mansion, original IP etc and only a teaser of ocarina of time that was already well known to be in development
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